Total quality management (TQM) is a management strategy that emphasizes a continuous, organization-wide effort to maintain quality customer service and satisfaction. TQM’s ultimate goal is to foster customer loyalty by delivering a level of service that will keep customers coming back again. A TQM strategy requires consistent feedback from employees and customers to determine how services and products can be improved across the entire organization.

Whereas other strategies might focus on specific departments, such as IT, TQM includes every department in continually improving its products and services. According to the TQM philosophy, the more you improve processes in every department, the easier it will be to deliver higher quality products and services to customers. With TQM, everyone in the company should be focused on quality improvement with the shared goal of boosting customer loyalty and satisfaction.  

TQM includes four main phases, known as The PDCA Cycle, for plan, do, check and act. The “planning” stage is when employees determine the root cause of various problems and quality management issues that need to be addressed throughout the organization. Strategies to address the determined problems discovered in the planning stage are developed during the “doing” stage. Ideas are analyzed and measured to determine how effective they are at helping solve the employees’ problems.

During the “checking” phase, organizations establish effectiveness by comparing data taken before and after to see how well projects performed and if quality improved. These results are then documented during the “acting” phase, during which time employees gear up to tackle another organizational issue they are facing.

There are eight defining principles of TQM to help guide your organization toward better customer service. According to the American Society for Quality (ASQ) the eight principles of TQM are:

There are a few certifications you can earn that are directly targeted at certifying your TQM skills. These programs are designed to help you verify your TQM knowledge and get you up to speed as a TQM professional. You can also earn certifications and take courses that are designed for specific tools that are used to support your organization’s TQM strategy, but those will be specific to your company and job role.

If you want to focus strictly on TQM certifications and courses here are a few places to start:

TQM skills are a valuable resource for customer-focused businesses that want to improve customer satisfaction by fostering an environment that supports continual improvement across the organization. According to data from PayScale, the average salary for those reporting TQM skills is $86,000 per year.

PayScale also offers data on how TQM skills can impact the annual salary for specific job titles:

More on IT service management:

This story, "What is TQM? A company-wide strategy for customer satisfaction" was originally published by CIO.